Six Chickens, Five Minutes
Date: 01/09/2003 at 17:30:47 From: Hao Meng Subject: Logic - How many eggs will #chickens lay in #minutes If 1 and 1/2 chickens lay 1 and 1/2 eggs in 1 and 1/2 minutes, how many eggs will 6 chickens lay in 5 minutes?
Date: 01/09/2003 at 17:39:54 From: Doctor Roy Subject: Re: Logic - How many eggs will #chickens lay in #minutes Hi, Thanks for writing to Dr. Math. The 1 1/2 is confusing, right? So, let's get rid of it. First, let's say that we have two groups of chickens, Group A and Group B. In each group, there are 1 1/2 chickens. Then, in 1 1/2 minutes, Group A has 1 1/2 eggs and Group B has 1 1/2 eggs. So, in total, Group A and Group B have given us 3 eggs in 1 1/2 minutes. Since we don't really need to keep them separate, let's combine Group A and Group B: 3 chickens (the total number of chickens from both groups) give us 3 eggs in 1 1/2 minutes. We have already gotten rid of 2 of the 1/2's. Now, we have the last one to go. 1 minute is 2/3 of 1 1/2, right? So the 3 chickens should be able to lay 2/3 the number of eggs in 1 minute that they can in 1 1/2 minutes, or: 3 chickens lay 2 eggs (2/3 * 3) in 1 minute. We've gotten rid of all the 1/2's now, we know that 3 chickens lay 2 eggs in 1 minute. Now, all we have to do is figure out how many eggs 6 chickens (or twice 3 chickens) can lay in 1 minute and then multiply by 5 (since we need the figure for 5 minutes). I hope this helps. - Doctor Roy, The Math Forum http://mathforum.org/dr.math/
Date: 01/09/2003 at 22:23:21 From: Hao Meng Subject: Thank you (Logic - How many eggs will #chickens lay in #minutes) Thank you so much for replying! I really appreaciate it - you made the problem simple and understandable. Thanks!
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